By RYAN TOLMICH
Despite suffering a 2-1 loss to Colombia, the U.S. Men’s National Team continues to draw positive reviews for its Jermaine Jones centerback experiment.
Jones impressed yet again for the U.S. against wave after wave of Colombia attacks, and his performance earned the New England Revolution star recognition as SBI’s USMNT Man of the Match.
In just his third game at centerback, Jones continued to provide consistency and leadership to the USMNT backline, which was repeatedly pressured by James Rodriguez and the highly-regarded Colombia attack. With a number of last ditch tackles to his name as well as having a role in the penalty awarded early in the first half, Jones once again took charge of his new position to keep the U.S. in the game until they conceded a late winner.
Jones earned the Man of the Match honors ahead of fullback Greg Garza and centerback partner John Brooks.
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What did you think of Jones’ performance Friday? Who was your USMNT Man of the Match?
Share your thoughts below.
Think I’m going with None of the Above on this one. Columbia could have scored a couple times in the first ten minutes on passes that just didn’t connect, no thanks to anyone on our defense.
Beasley made a nice interception and pass right after coming on, and Lee Nguyen made a clever back heel pass in the attack – if either of them had more time, it could have been them.
Forced to pick, I guess I’d say Beckerman. He was put in a tough spot and did reasonably well.
Enjoyed watching Rubin. He has some athletic gifts and he looked the part, was not overwhelmed by the moment…definitely one to watch. Not a good game from Mix and I think We all saw enough of MVLee to know that he deserves more callups. I was not disheartened by this game. No Bradley, no Deuce and we still had chances. Colombia is a lot better than us, but we fought hard and made a game of it.
Should read: Cameron did well in the World Cup for us.
Cannot take seriously a MOTM to a defender when the opponent manages two goals, the first admittedly offside.
Cameron did well except for his cough up clearance for the opponent’s goal.
Why isn’t Cameron playing left CB instead of Jones.
Jones still belongs in central midfield and would have been better than Diskerud vs an aggressive Colombia.
The whole MOTM thing is just as “realistic” as FIFA ratings, if you’re a loser.
Jones would probably be behind at least bedoya, Guzman, garza, brooks, and Rubin for me. When you are a center back and make a ton of tackles it’s typically cause your out of position. I also think he gets beat in the air a fair amount. Still think he would be a difference maker in the midfield and I am not sure why we are forcing the centerback thing.
” I am not sure why we are forcing the centerback thing.”
Because this is a friendly with a very tough opponent and is the perfect time to try out things.
People act like players have never been converted from other positions to play center back.
There is Vincent Kompany, Carlos Bocanegra and even a guy named Geoff Cameron along with more than few others.
Among other things it is a way to give others a shot at a midfield that already seems to have an overload of candidates to try out and still keep one of the USMNT’s very few fiery personalities on the field.
Jones has bad positioning for a cb and his distribution consists of fifty yard boot balls which we rarely get possession of. Bedoya, Garza, or guzan would have been better choices. Jones wasn’t even the best center back on our team.
Agree completely with you there. For me, Brooks was better than Jones. Both were two of our better players though.
I thought Bedoya really stood out as the only player to show much of anything in the attack and brought the traditional Bedoya work rate on the defensive end. He would be my MOTM pick.
I also thought Jozy did pretty well with what he had to work with. He was active tracking back as well.
In contrast, I thought Diskerud and Johnson were pretty bad. Neither had a positive impact on the game whatsoever. They were completely ineffective. Yedlin’s 2nd half was particularly bad as well.
I agree, I don’t see where Jones is really an up grade. He’s pretty good a last ditch defending but so is Omar. More often then not he clears the ball out or to the other side, much like Omar. Not as good in the air as Omar. Having him punt the ball out of the back isn’t so much better then just having the goal keeper do it.
+1
Totally agree.
Beckerman MOTM. The guy just never seems rattled and just plays his game, had great positioning throughout the game, was one of the few guys to actually try and play forward and try to create something, and was just a calming presence when he had the ball. I greatly admire his game and maybe for next game we can have a midfielder next to him that is also competent, I’m looking at you Mix.
Hey I like Beckerman and have always supported him but never rattled? Did you see him get owned in LA last weekend?
Yea I gotta agree again.. He really earned my respect on the NT in the year or so leading up to the World Cup… but Colombia was one of those opponents that plays so fast, and the overall speed of that game was one of those that wasn’t suited for him… speed of play just too quick and with the exception of those few awesome passes it wasn’t his best outing.
I thought yesterday would have been a better game to play the 4-2-3-1
True for early in the game. But in the second half, where the US was getting overrun, Becks was nowhere defensively, nor as a calming presence on the ball to relieve pressure. Part of that was Mix just dropping off the face of the earth…Significant upgrade when Ngyuen came on. Another problem for Becks was that FJ was a horror show on the right. Totally useless. Liked the lineup overall, but would like to see Bradley in for Becks, Ngyuen in for Mix, and a healthy Gyau in for FJ.
US still has a ways to go, but last night was promising. Better finishes from Wood and Rubin and they are right in that game.
Ngyuen is A LOT better than Mix.
Beckerman MOTM for me
Question was who you felt reasonably comfortable with on the ball against a really fast and aggressive Columbia team. Beckerman and Bedoya was it… plus they both created plays that Rubin could have finished. Beasley and Nguyen later on had some decent possession moments.
Jones was partially at fault for the 2nd goal, the backline was confused all night, he wandered quite a bit, and should have been called for a penalty on a handball. He’s always plays tough as a defender, but not a MOTM performance by any means.
becks kept giving ball away…
Yeah, I don’t really disagree with anything strongly except for thinking Beckerman had a good game. He didn’t and at least half of that is due to Beckerman’s physical limitation of being downright slow.
Isn’t it funny that two people watching the same game can derive such differing opinions on one player. I guess one guy talks about beckermans physical limitations and the other is talking about beckerman being good on the ball, so it’s not really mutually exclusive.
K beckerman has been one of our better players over the past couple years, and he is definitely one of the smartest, but he is so easily overlooked and that has to say something about soccer culture in our country.
All we freaking heard before the World Cup was Kyle beckerman might be good in CONCACAF, but wait til he gets to the World Cup. Then he will get exposed. What a load of hogwash.
KB had some good and some bad in the match.
He showed an ability to maintain possession (a bit), find good outlet passes (some of the time), and provide some decent tackles.
However, he also made several boneheaded passes late (when the US was trailing) and was badly exposed for speed a few times.
I don’t think people are questioning whether KB is a good player or can play on the international level…people are simply saying his performance last night was not as good as others are trying to make it out. It was a mediocre performance from a player we now know is capable of performing at the international level.
Beckerman was often out numbered as the Colombians overran the midfield.
Which is what happens when you play two strikers. It meant Jozy had to drop back a lot in the second half to defend.
Altidore was much better on the ball than Beckerman. And he played a significant role defending in the midfield from his forward position. If you are picking a US player, he was the best on the field — definitely much better than a so-so Jones. All of these Jones MOTM grades from SBI seem like a practical joke.
Doesn’t this picture sum up the game though…
Both Jones and Brooks on their keesters while Colombians run by them 🙂
The fact only defenders are on this list and we gave up 2 goals certainly says something
Always…..
I love JJ, but some part of me thinks back to Thomas Dooley and wonders how far we’ve come.
The days of Jones being considered by the fan base one of the worst USMNT players and a “bad fit” seem a lot longer ago than they really are…